The old joke about marketing was that you could never determine which half of it worked. Today, marketers face a similar challenge: While they know that Australians are watching more Connected TV (CTV) and continuing to watch some linear TV, reliably tracking which ads they’re seeing on CTV, linear, both or neither remains a complex issue.

This lack of clarity can result in consumers being underexposed or overexposed to ads and the suboptimal allocation of advertising budgets.

While some issues remain with measurement – and industry acceptance of new measurement metrics –  factors such as the mass penetration of Smart TVs and tech businesses developing more precise and trustworthy methods of tracking people’s engagement with both linear and Connected TV mean businesses can now wring more bang from their advertising buck. 

As Bupa and their media agency, Atomic 212, recently discovered. 

The background
While the technology involved was cutting-edge, the issue Bupa faced when launching a recent campaign (to attract new members) was old hat.

Bupa and Atomic 212 wanted to ensure those exposed to Bupa ads on linear TV weren’t also having those ads served up during their CTV viewing. It was also important to maximise the target-audience eyeballs exposed to the ads on linear or Connected TV while also not wasting money by overexposing potential Bupa customers to ads.

Nexxen has exclusive access to data, including granular ACR data, from more than 1.3 million opted-in (i.e. no privacy issues) devices across Australia. This is provided by VIDAA, the leading Smart TV operating system powering Hisense, Toshiba and other original equipment manufacturer (“OEM”) brands.

VIDAA ACR data can be integrated into Nexxen's TV Intelligence suite, which encompasses insights, activation and measurement solutions.

Within this suite, the Cross-Platform Measurement component utilises ACR data to monitor advertising exposure among a representative sample of Australians. This integration enables the analysis of viewer overlap across different screens. It also supports the optimisation of audience reach by analysing viewership behaviours.

How Bupa effectively leveraged ACR data
Marketers have long fantasised about a world where they could precisely track what ads consumers saw and how effective those ads were. Such a world is finally materialising, and a recent Bupa campaign demonstrates how businesses can benefit from increasingly available and comprehensive ACR data.

Australia’s private health insurance industry is competitive. Bupa (the British United Provident Association) is a relatively recent entrant to the local market compared to some of its competitors. Australians are incentivised to take out private health insurance during their twenties, so this is the primary target market for health insurers. And today’s twentysomethings are the true digital natives, having grown up with a phone glued to their hand.

Bupa wanted to scale up its CTV investments to reach its youthful target market. It also wanted to avoid overexposing potential customers to its ads on both CTV and linear TV.

In partnership with Nexxen and Atomic 212, Bupa opted to chart a new course. A new course that was now feasible given technological advances pioneered by Nexxen. (Nexxen has been first to market with a sophisticated cross-screen measurement solution.)

Leveraging the Nexxen TV Intelligence suite, particularly TV Viewership Audiences, Bupa and Atomic 212 created custom ‘ACR segments’ relevant to the campaign’s objectives. To better utilise ad spend, individuals who had already seen a Bupa linear TV ad weren’t shown a CTV one. Audiences exposed to competitors’ ads were targeted.

Through Cross-Screen Measurement, those behind it had access to granular data about when, where and how Australians viewed Bupa’s ads. These eminently actionable insights – including network performance, demographic trends, geo consumption and competitor analysis – allowed Bupa and Atomic 212 to fine-tune the campaign, improving its effectiveness and ROI.

The scoreboard       
While businesses and agencies are moving towards focusing on ACR data and embracing cross-platform measurement solutions, it’s still early days. Nonetheless, Bupa’s experience suggests that impressive efficiencies can arise from better tracking Australians’ ad-watching behaviours across both CTV and linear TV.

Due to the ACR data targeting facilitated by Nexxen’s solutions:

• 830,000 Australian households didn’t rewatch Bupa’s advertisements. Nexxen’s TV Audience Suppression Segment excluded almost a million households previously exposed to Bupa’s ads on linear TV.
• There was a significant increase in reach. The suppression tactic (i.e. not showing Bupa ads on CTV to households already exposed to them on linear TV) is estimated to have enhanced Digital TV household reach by a substantial 16%.

 Thanks to Nexxen’s measurement solutions, cross-platform and otherwise, it was determined that:

• 1.26 million ‘additional’ Australian households were reached. Bupa’s Digital TV campaigns resulted in an additional reach of 1.26 million households, representing a 39% incremental reach beyond linear TV campaigns.
• ‘Double dipping’ occurred only 6% of the time. Impressively, 94% of households reached via BVOD were not exposed to Bupa’s ads on FAST channels. This comparatively low overlap in viewership between BVOD and FAST activities demonstrates that FAST TV inventory is an effective medium for augmenting TV reach beyond linear and BVOD channels.

A promising start

While industry professionals may obsess over the differences between the streamers and ‘legacy’ free-to-air TV channels, consumers truly are platform agnostic nowadays.

“With the evolving nature of how we are all consuming TV, Atomic 212 are always looking for smarter and more efficient ways to reach our clients audiences effectively. Nexxen has allowed us to do this for Bupa using VIDAA ACR data,” said Emma Macey, Group Account Director at Atomic 212.

Given the small sample currently available, it’s not yet possible to precisely quantify how much more effective campaigns that leverage comprehensive ACR data are. However, evidence from the Bupa campaign suggests that advertisers willing to innovate and invest in the right tech stack can cut costs while reaching more eyeballs.

The scarcity of ACR data at scale has made it challenging for brands to deeply understand how users interact with their Smart TVs and associated apps. However, ACR technology provides a wealth of insights that were previously elusive. ACR doesn’t just bridge the data gap; it also adds valuable colour and depth to planning, buying and analysis at scale. Nexxen anticipates a growing reliance on ACR in the APAC region, not as a replacement but as a complementary tool that enriches the planning and buying processes.

That’s likely to be encouraging news for advertisers heading into another challenging and unpredictable financial year.